The Great British outdoors now caters to the infinite demand for outdoor summer gigs in a variety of settings: farms and country parks, stately homes and now concerts in the grounds of historic castles seem to be the latest concept, especially in Wales. The historic old town of Chepstow in Monmouthshire now hosts under the banner of Castell Roc a whole summmer season with a mix of tribute and original acts.

In GRTR! territory the latter included Kris Barras Band with Stone Broken, and this show which was the melodic rock event of the year. Tyketto and Dare shared a stage with FM on a memorable tour last year, and I’d happened to have seen both at festivals recently in the UK and Sweden respectively, but the draw was a relatively rare UK show from H.E.A.T, their first UK show since 2022.

The castle grounds were an ideal location, a natural amphitheatre with a standing area and seating at the side, all sloping down towards a main stage that looked deceptively tiny from the photos but was more than adequate. And the bands could not help remarking on the unique surroundings and even better for them the dressing rooms were within the castle!

It was originally a four band bill but Zac and the New Men withdrew. With respect to them I was not too upset as I understood the three main bands had equal billing and with gates not opening till 6:30pm I was worried they would not get a decent set length. As it was they each had at least an hour.

Dare opened proceedings at 7 and though I had fears that their more subtle sound might not appeal to fans of the other two bands, there were plenty of Dare diehards in attendance – many us of indeed rushing there after a fan club get together in a local pub.

A suitably rocky opener in ‘Born In The Storm’- complete with Darren Wharton’s trademark Lynott-inspired ‘we need your helping hands’ was followed by some slightly mellower moments in the anthemic ‘Cradle To The Grave’ and ‘Home’ and the Celtic overtones of ‘Until’. The band are surely playing as well as ever with Darren’s inimitable near whispered vocals and equally importantly, look as if they are having fun.

Only having an hour to play with probably worked in their favour for a bill like this as they skipped many of the more introspective songs to go relatively early into their best known songs, beginning with a hard rocking ‘Wings of Fire’ (though did Darren forget the words at one point?), then the same classics from debut album ‘Out Of The Silence’ that grace every Dare gig.

They began with the classic 1-2 punch of AOR bliss in ‘Abandon’, which he reminded us was played in Radio 1 by the late Steve Wright and ‘Into The Fire’- both given colour by the period keyboard sounds of Marc Roberts’ Roland, before the atmospheric ‘The Raindance’ and Darren’s tribute to Phil Lynott on ‘King of Spades’, segueing into Vinny Burns playing the solos from ‘Black Rose’ with his usual exquisite taste.

‘Return The Heart’ looked to have concluded matters in its usual style, the crowd swaying and Darren’s arms around band members. However they then found they had an unexpected extra five minutes and fresh from mainly touring a Lizzy set this year as Renegade, after an impromptu committee meeting to decide what song could be played with one guitar, ‘Rosalie’ won the day, not least as it was an excuse for more audience participation.

I always get the impression South Wales is a Tyketto stronghold – they held a special fans event in Pontypridd a while back (how I wish I’d gone!), and now boast a Welshman in their ranks, albeit a kilt wearing one, in guitarist Harry Scott Elliott.

‘Remember My Name’ was a slightly left field choice of opener, bluesy and indeed introduced by some Danny Vaughn harmonica playing, yet boasting a strong chorus with its classic ‘life is easy it’s living that’s hard’ lyric. More familiar material followed in ‘Meet Me In the Night’ and ‘Wings’ (at which point the friend I was watching with offered the opinion it was even better than ‘Forever Young’) with Harry’s solos effortlessly fluid and melodic. Danny’s voice was as strong as ever though it felt like there was a little less of his trademark chat.

‘Reach’, with acoustic and electric guitars combining well and some powerhouse drumming from Johnny Dee, sandwiched some older yet still fresh sounding rockers in ‘Strength In Numbers’ and ‘Rescue Me’. Inevitably though we would be moving on to the classics from their ‘Don’t Come Easy’ debut and after the big chorus hook of ‘Burning Down Inside’, the grooves of ‘Lay Your Body Down’ in which bassist Chris Childs was prominent came complete with singalong. In the first departure from a similar but slightly shorter set the previous month at Maid of Stone, as Danny was handed back his acoustic I was convinced ‘Standing Alone’ would follow but instead we got a powerful ‘Sail Away’.

In a second addition the band played the acoustic ‘The Last Sunset’, though they forgot a tambourine for Johnny who had to content himself with leading crowd handclaps. Then with Danny asking those whose knees could stand it to bounce, the melodic rock national anthem in ‘Forever Young’ concluded a superb Tyketto set. There is rarely any other, though, and the good news is that a headline tour is next month too!

The darkness that had fallen during that set only heightened the atmosphere for H.E.A.T who after their usual intro tape of ‘The Heat Is On’ came on one by one to a stage and lights set up that suggested they were first among equals among the nominal co-headliners. The still young-ish Swedes opened with three immediate fist punchers in ‘Back To The Rhythm’, ‘Rock Your Body’ and ‘Hollywood’. Singer Kenny Leckremo was all flailing hair and running around the stage and the band had a flashier stage presence.

There was no doubt that people around me were lapping it up – however even as a long-time champion of the band I found myself being hyper-critical. Despite his fluid solos, Dave Dalone has a very thin guitar tone which struggled to give the songs some crunch and I kept thinking they really need to revert to having a second guitarist to thicken the sound.

The other was Kenny and I wondered if he was again trying too hard to impress since his return to the band. For all that energy, his voice seemed thin by his standards, he missed singing a number of lines, which bassist Jimmy Jay and keyboardist Jona Tee covered splendidly, and seemed to spend rather a lot of time off stage.

In fairness I discovered after the show that he had been sick enough to even miss soundcheck, so on this occasion that allowance has to be made and I had to recant some of my snap judgements. Nevertheless for this and a number of reasons, including time spent off stage while intro tapes were cued up, their show just did not flow as well as the other two bands.

The upside though was probably the best balanced setlist I have seen covering all ages of their careers. ‘Downtown’ was unexpected and the first change of pace after that frantic opening, but the energy levels of ‘One By One’ and, later on, ‘Dangerous Ground’ compensated.

Unfortunately what should have been a highlight from the first album in the big ballad ‘Cry’ was one where Kenny’s struggles were most noticeable, alongside the contrasting challenge of ‘Point Of No Return’ which seemed too fast for him to effectively reach the high notes. Crash (or Don Crash as he now seems to have become) however lived up to his name, drumming with such vigour that his kit seemed to be falling apart around him.

There was fun with usual audience participation to ‘Beg Beg Beg’ though I wasn’t convinced Kenny’s remarks fully grasped the separate identities of England and Wales. He produced a new solo vocal intro to ‘Living On The Run’ though what is one of my favourite songs didn’t feel as sprightly as usual, while the old Eurovision song ‘1000 Miles’ recalled their more AOR beginnings.

The gig did end in style with ‘A Shot At Redemption’ with that big rhythmic spacey chorus made for singing and jumping. Though I had reservations this was far from H.E.A.T’s finest performance, everyone surely would have been entertained by a night of the best melodic rock in this wonderful setting.

Review by Andy Nathan
Photos by Darren Griffiths

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

Next session: Sunday 19 January

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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 1 December 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 3 December 2024.

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)